The Boston Marathon

Here is what I can remember about the Boston Marathon, It is crazy that it has already been two weeks since I ran this.  I woke up at 5:10 am on race morning (Monday April 16th), but truthfully I woke up several times during the night, I was worried I would over sleep and I was nervous.  I woke up and put on sunscreen and my pink tank top and pink checker shorts, and headed out the door.  Reddin and I drove to the subway station and I was happy to see so many runners getting on the subway.


We meet Heather and then got back on the subway to park street.  There was a long row of yellow school buses, we took a few pictures and got on a bus and Reddin took of to go explore.


Heather and I talked the whole way on the bus, It was nice to have someone to talk and it made the trip go quick.  We got to Athletes village a few hours before the start so we ate a bagel, stood in the potty line a few times, collected free stuff (powerbars and body glide), and at about 9:30 started walked to the buses to drop off our drop bags and walk to the start.  Before the race even started I was sweating.  I was in wave 2 in corral 8 so I wished Heather good luck and we both went to the correct spots.  I crossed the start line at around 10:25 and then started running.  I didn't look at my watch very much I just wanted to do what felt comfortable but every time I did look it was always around 8 or 8:15.  I felt pretty good but sweat was dripping down my face and I really wished I had a towel or visor or something.  I drank all of my water and had to take my first gel by mile 5 because I was starting to feel funny.  At mile 10 I started to slow and knew that I needed to slow down if I wanted to finish this race and not pass out or get sick.  I was doing anything I could to cool my body down.  I ran from sprinkler to sprinkler, the spectators were amazing they lined the whole 26.2 miles and they came prepared with garden hoses, spray bottles, and water guns to keep us cool.  Several also handed out ice and cold wet sponges (those where to of my favorite items).  The race organizers where really worried about the heat (It got close to 90 degrees that day a race record I think) so they had the fire department come out also.  They fire department opened up fire hydrants and sprayed us down and they even has at least three huge yellow tents that you could run thru that sprayed water on you.  My shoes were soaking wet early on in the race, but I didn't care I just wanted to finish.  At mile 13 I ran by Wellesley college and laughed at all the signs (kiss me I am a senior, or never been kissed)  I saw a few guys stop and get kissed.  Right before mile 17 I saw Reddin and stopped and gave him a big sweaty hug and kiss and then kept running.

 I was felling pretty good then, but a few miles after that I started to slow again and took another gel, I realized then that I probably wasn't going to finish in under 4:00, but I just kept running.  I walked a little to take a gel as I started up Heartbreak Hill which helped and then just kept going. I loved the spectators at Boston College they were so loud and called me pink (go pink, looking good pink).   The last 4 miles I just kept telling myself one loop around the Islands and then when I got to 3 miles I told myself you can do anything for 30 minutes.  Then the crowd really started cheering the last 2 miles and even though my legs where tingly I finished as strong as I could at 4:16:59.  My worst race time ever, but I was still so proud because I finished.  This was the hardest race I have ran so far but I was glad I did it, it is fun.  After I finished they have you walk to get you metal and goody bag and then you have to keep walking to to get your drop bag.  I saw the long line of runners in wheel chairs and I didn't want to have to sit in one of them but by they time I got to the bus with my drop bag I felt like I was going to pass out so I set down behind the bus and texted Reddin.  He was waiting for me in the family area under the letter E.  I ate a few potato chips that is the only thing that sounded kind of good and then got up and walked to him.  After I found him I set back down again and finished my chips and then we walked to the park and got on the subway and headed back for our hotel.  I took an ice bath and then went and got in the pool and finally around 8pm that night decided I wanted to eat more then just salty snacks.  Overall it as so much fun and want to do it again someday if I can qualify again.

Runabout - An amazing addition to my training schedule

Karen, Lindy and I set out on our first Runabout on Friday, March 30th around 8:30am.

We learned a lot:

1. Always do a Runabout with friends! I loved having all day to spend with Karen and Lindy and we never ran out of things to talk about.

2. Eating must be central to your loose plans for the day, but don't eat too much, definitely don't eat until your full. Instead, eat half as much as you want and then a few hours later eat some more. Next time I would stop for a bagel or a muffin a few hours in, then half a sandwich a few hours later then a cupcake a few hours later. Along with gels and Gatorade that should get you through a day of running. I loved our stop at 7-11 to share a Cherry Coke. It tasted delicious!

3. Run as far away from home as you can, on new routes if possible. Next time it may be nice to park at Tempe Town Lake and run up through Scottsdale.

4. Plan a Runabout during cool weather. I loved our day, but after lunch it was just too hot for me to enjoy the running part of the outing, and since that was pretty much all we were doing that kind of spoiled it. :) Along with this, wear sunscreen! I'm still peeling from my sunburn, and it's a funky tan line because I sunscreened my shoulders and wiped down my arms but not enough got down to my forearms. So it is smeary and I have a definite line from my Garmin.

5. Bring more stuff. Medicine (Tylenol and Benadryl for me), maybe a few wipes in a ziplock bag, sunscreen. I feel like there should be more, but I don't know what else.



About to leave, looks like Lindy was still giving directions for her babysitter. :)

Lindy and Karen at Discovery Park with the new Gilbert Temple going up.

 

Discovery Park. I knew my shorts were too big, but this pic might make me retire them...



LUNCH!



We ran in to a friend at Paradise and she took our picture. I'm fairly certain she thinks we are all nuts!

They are so fast! We braved some construction and unknown canal routes.



Cooling off at Zanjero park.



When I saw this oasis park in the distance I knew that was where we needed to stop!



Yep, this is how we felt when we reached the shade!



Still smiling.



Our final pic, we must be good friends because we were disgusting, but still willing to touch each other for this pic.

Runabout is for friends

Checking texts

Entering a raffle at San Tan Mall

Lunch in Paradise

March 30, 2012

Cynthia didn’t have any upcoming races on her calendar and was looking for adventure. When she suggested it might be time to do the “Runabout”, Karen and I both signed on with no hesitation.

The Runabout was a concept we both learned from Dean Karnazes suggestion in his book about running a marathon in 50 days through all 50 states. He said if you really want a fun experience to pack a little bag and take off running all day in whatever direction strikes your fancy. We thought this sounded like a great idea. Not always an easy thing to do when you have kids, but a suggestion that we added to our bucket list.

Recently Cynthia came upon a blog post by Kristin Armstrong. Kristin and her friend Paige had taken a day off to do a Runabout. Reading their post got us excited about our Runabout, and we moved it higher on our priority list.

So we picked the date and lined up babysitters. We decided to do it during school hours- 9:00 to 3:00. This way Karen and I had only to find child care for our youngest. And Cynthia's kids would all be in school.

By 9:00 Friday morning we were on our way. With a few ideas, but an adventurous spirit…all of us willing to go wherever sounded fun by the moment.

Over the course of the day we spent little time on canals that we regularly run. We spent allot of time on canals that are more out of our way. We traveled new running/biking paths. We stopped when we needed bathrooms or snacks. We stopped when we needed to share a cherry coke. We put three straws in the coke and boy was it tasty. We waited for lunch until we really worked up an appetite. We were close to San Tan Outdoor Mall when we were ready. So we agreed on a classic favorite – Paradise Bakery. We all picked sandwiches and ate enough that we had to take our cookies with us for later.

Cynthia’s Mom worked near by so we swung by her office and left our long sleeve shirts (packed for our comfort inside an air-conditioned restaurant) with her. We ran on a little lighter without shirts tied around our waist. But the food in our tummies and the heat outside was starting to take a toll and we started to fade a little after lunch.

We didn’t want to start running home, we wanted to keep going in a new direction. We had this option available to us because Cynthia’s husband Scott was willing to pick us up. Yay for Scott. We just kept going until we could tell that our time was short and we had to get back to reality. We had to get back to pick up kids from school.

Over the course of the day we ran into people doing normal stuff. This is one of the things I really liked about doing runabout on a weekday and not Saturday or Sunday. It was fun to see people doing their normal stuff, and know that we were having this special day that we created for ourselves. We got allot of questions and strange looks….where are you guys from? How far have you run? Do you do this everyday?........

I highly recommend runabout with friends. Kristin Armstrong had a really great quote in her blog about how “sometimes it takes endurance to have the best kind of fun”. I liked Dean’s idea of running all day, but I really like having cool friends to share this activity with. At one point I was about to take a picture of Cynthia and she insisted one of us be in the pic with her. She said “Runabout is about friends”. And I have to agree with her. Runabout is for friends.